gratn

Hi

I understand Air NZ has self check-in kiosks at LAX, and self bag-drop facilities, as well as the old style assisted check in option (for J at least).

My flight to Auckland departs at 10.05pm, but I can’t see anything about what time the self check-in and bag drop option opens. Does anyone have recent experience of this?

Check in staff usually open up three hours before flights, but my connection gets to LAX a couple of hours before that, so I’d like to check my bags and go airside to wait in the Star Alliance lounge if I can.

Thanks all 😀

nzkarit

Self check opens that same time as the the desks. Don't quote me on it but think the Us is t-4h as closes at t-2h instead of t-1.5h.

If there are two flights are you are on the later one you may be able to check in earlier as the staff will be there.

kiwifrequentflyer

I think it opened 3 hours out for me. It could be 4 though and I just didn't realize it had been open prior to that. However, it opens for all flights. And so if there are 2 flights, and you are on the later one, you can still check in once checkin opens for the earlier flight.

Back when AIRNZ flew to London, I once found it more convenient to check in extra early for my flight home. They checked me in at the same time as the London flight and I hung out in the lounges for quite some time - about 8 hours.

raznz

Maybe because we were transiting from a non*A flight but it didn't work for me and other passengers back in November and had to go on the manual queue

Thai-Kiwi

Seems you will depart LAX on or after 31 Mar, when the departure time for NZ5 changes to 22:05. Also seems that NZ3 ceases operating it’s (presumably) seasonal sevice on 24 Mar, although I didn’t do an deep search. All around the Daylight Saving start presumably.

So unfortunately seems there won’t be an earlier flight to provide a chance for an earlier check-in.

gratn

Sadly yes, your detective work is correct. I’m travelling in May and, at this stage, there’s only one LAX to AKL flight.

kiwifrequentflyer

Yes, my experience was you'd complete the machines prompts and it would end with you needing to check in manually.

samjnz

If you're flying in on United you can just check in for both flights at your first departure (even if on different tickets) -- just ask them to "through check my bags".

Usually they get a little confused working it out on their system but make sure you have your Air NZ ticket number handy (not just your booking reference).

sbiddle

It's worth bring up the topic of interlining bags. There are other airlines out there (not just *A carriers) that will interline bags with Air NZ and I have done this on multiple occasions with flights via LAX. Pre Covid (and I have no idea is this policy still applies so it's very much do your own due diligence first) AC, AS, DL and UA were all capable of doing this as they all have interline/codeshare agreements with Air NZ for North American connections. Sometimes getting this done does rely on finding check-in staff who have the knowledge and understanding to do this.

The key thing is just make sure you then remember to give the bag tag # to Air NZ checkin at LAX (or whatever airport you're flying through) or your bags simply won't get loaded onto the Air NZ flight.

kiwifrequentflyer

I have never tried it outside of Star Alliance network, but whenever I have done it with Star Alliance airlines they have checked me in for my Air NZ flight too. So when I fly domestically in the USA to my airport I am flying out of I can stay airside when I land and not have to go out of security which is very nice. The wall from the UA terminal to the TB terminal airside in LAX is fairly long but its a fun walk.

The one warning I would give to people is if you are still waiting for an upgrade to clear, this has hurt my chances before. When I have checked in with another carrier, I have lost the "clear at check-in" option for the upgrade and instead, had to wait to see if it would clear at the gate. I had a very interesting phone call once in Houston to the Air NZ phone line to discuss this, haha. So I would no longer do this, if I was still waiting for an upgrade.

taupo

I can confirm from recent experience that his holds true for AC and WS (Westjet is not *A).

LyingFlat

NZ closes all international check-ins at 60 minutes. This isn't advertised by them as if they did, too many people would turn up at the last minute.

gratn

Thanks all. I booked my US connecting flight on United to use the Star Alliance interline benefits. Unfortunately United cancelled my flight and put me on a later flight that risked me and/or my bags missing the connection to my Air NZ flight. To avoid this I’ve swapped to an earlier option, but it is operated by a United partner airline called JSX, which does not appear to be a partner for Air NZ or to interline with others (as it is based away from the main LAX terminal complex). I’ll ask on the day and report back.

henrus

It's amazing how LAX has gone from having up to 4x Air NZ flights per day (1x LHR, 2x AKL and 1x AKL via RAR on some days pre covid) to hardly having service at all, just a single flight to AKL most days.

samyoull

JSX is great for point to point trips, this is one instance where I'd probably avoid them though - they use FBO facilities and don't integrate well for connecting flights